Upgrade to os4 - A way to get lost information - CONTACTS and TEXTS

Question

I have been spending hours, and hours, trying to figure out what happened to this phone. I upgraded to os4, and when I did, I lost everything (contacts, texts, pics, apps, etc.), eventhough I backed up everything on a weekly basis. Not sure where Apple dropped the ball on this major issue. I have been looking for hours to find a fix. I came across a post that was helpful in finding a way to solve some of my problems, including FINDING MY LOST CONTACTS! I have to manually enter them into my phone again, but at least I have them! Like, me I am sure many of you don't memorize phone numbers anymore. I have just added to a post I found by Somebody2 on another forum (http://discussions.apple.com/message.jspa?messageID=11831613), as a starter, and added to it, to give more specific directions. I am extremely thankful; to have found this! I am still looking to find a way to get back my lost pictures, but that may be a lost cause. Hopefully this can help some of you out there, like it did me(....sigh of relief). Anyway, here is a way to find those lost contacts and texts:
Here are the main steps, assuming that you did backup your iPhone using iTunes recently:
1. Use the following tutorial to install FireFox with SQLite Manager add-in and point it to your backup folder:
http://www.skyontech.com/blog/iPhone-app-data-access
(**when following these directions, make a copy of the backup folder, and paste it on your desktop to make the overall process a little easier)
**2. Once you have opened SQLite, Click on the options (hammer/screwdriver icon) at the top. Change the "Default file extension for SQLite files" to mddata then click OK. Next, Click on the word "Directory" at the top, just under the menu bar. Then select choose "Select default directory". Choose the most recent folder inside the backup folder you copied to the desktop, then click OK.
**3. Now the more time consuming part (took me at least 30 minutes). Beside the word "Directory" you can now choose files from a drop down menu. The easiest way I found to do this is to click on the 1st one, then click go. You can continue down the list using the arrow key, and click go each time you go to a new file... As you do this, you will see the left side change. Sometime it has nothing (No directory found), and other times there is a list of menus (master table, tables, views, indexes, triggers). I found mine in the 38...range out of the hundreds of files.
**4. Continue to go through the files until you see "ABGroup" under the tables menu as an options (it does not show up under the "master table" menu, just under "tables").
5. Once you have found "ABGroup", Click on the "Execute SQL" tab in the SQLite Manager and copy/paste the following:
====================
SELECT First, Last, Organization, Note, value as Phone FROM ABPerson, ABMultiValue WHERE ABMultiValue.property=3 AND ROWID=record_id ORDER BY First
====================
Then click "Run SQL" button.
You should now see the list of all contacts backed up from your iPhone. You can also highlight all rows with the mouse and the SHIFT key, then right-click and select "Copy Rows as CSV for Excel", then paste them to Excel so that you can print your contacts spreadsheet.
NOTE: You can do the same thing for finding text messages. The only difference, is that you want to look for the word "message" under the tables menu instead of abgroup.
I have never posted here, but this was a HUGE help to me, so I thought I would try to share a more detailed way to get these back. I know it's not easy, but IT WORKS!! I am so relieved, and thanks a lot Somebody2!!!!
If anyone knows how to recover lost pictures, even if it is a process like this, please, please, please post it.

Answer 1

oops...ouch...hard way to learn to always back up your stuff
you "never" backed anything up?? not even an old backup someplace? you really don't have to answer...i'm just feeling your pain. difficult.